Own Goal Draw
The second game of the Rocky Mountain Cup ended in a one - one draw. The Rocky Mountain Cup is the closest thing to a derby in the MLS, except we need a piece of silverware to mark it. Real Salt Lake, and the Colorado Rapids play four games through-out the season, and the team that comes away with the better record gets the silverware at the end of the season. There’s also one of these types of competitions between FC Dallas, and the Houston Dynamo.
Previously when the two teams met in Utah, the Rapids walked away two - nil winners. Tonight with Salt Lake under the new management of former player Jason Kreis, they came away a bit better, although they are still with out a win in nine games - going back to last season.
Both goals came early on with Colorado getting on the board in the fourth minute. Nick Rimando punched a cross straight into the thigh of defender Jack Stewart which went directly into the back of the net. Salt Lake’s goal didn’t look much better as a Freddy Adu cross was deflected off the out stretched foot of Pablo Mastroeni. The deflection caught Colorado ‘keeper, Bouna Coundoul, going the wrong way and the ball went in near post.
The rest of the game was back and forth play with Colorado enjoying most of the dominance, although no one really tested Rimando through out much of the game, if not all. Salt Lake could have gone into the half a goal up as Freddy Adu was breaking into the box with a chasing defender. Adu cut outside, shortening his own angle on goal. His shot was well taken, but Coundoul came up with a spectacular, unwavering one-handed save.
Earlier in the first half, Herculez Gomez should have put Colorado up as the ball was played in past the defenders, however, Gomez skied his shot on his first touch despite having time to control. Gomez looked to put the Rapids up later, but was ruled off ides, when in actuality he was onsides. Colorado had two more goals denied due to offsides. The later two were in certainty offsides. Gomez looked to have the most chances for Colorado on the night, but many of his chances would have done better had he distributed. He took shots with difficult angles, and put them into the arms of Rimando. Gomez has continued to be unimpressive making numerous poor decisions.
Really not much to say about this game. Neither team really looked like they should have won, although new coach Jason Kreis introduced some new tactics that saw better use of the skill on his squad. Unfortuatnely for Kries and Real Salt Lake, it doesn’t look like it will be enough to have much of a season.
On a side note, if you saw this game on the ESPN as I did and forgot to turn off the volume, you were assaulted with nearly forty-five minutes of praise for Freddy Adu. Needless to say, it’s undo praise. For me at least. Adu has been, and will continue to be over-hyped. He speaks of his dreams of playing in Europe, but currently he’d ride the bench at most Fizzy Pop sides. Perhaps in time he will develop, but to hear this garble spew forth from the likes of Eric Wynalda for that long was really quite awful. Next time I catch a game on ESPN it will be muted.
Attendance: 13,458
